The City

I have not had a few minutes in a row to breath yet this week. Will read this post soon; tomorrow hopes to bring some time for me, maybe.

Jeanne

When I was a kid, in another century, my three sisters and I each got one thing, quite small on Christmas Eve. Then the day after Christmas we headed for the “big city” (Minneapolis) and hit all the stores for after Christmas sales. Sometimes I think we almost looked forward more to after Christmas than the real day. Valerie Weaver
-— Original Message -—

Stephanie,  I share your joy at the miracle!  Praise God, He is good.  Blessings, Kelly  

In the 90s, I read a book by Gene Edwards that gave me an incredible image of the bride of Christ. It was during my years at the Vineyard and out of that era came a big push for conversation and recognition of the church as the bride. I remember thinking back then, that it’s such a weird way to describe us, the church. How do men associate themselves with the idea of being a bride? The most vivid and memorable image hit me in that book (The Divine Romance). He portrayed the church like a mosaic of sorts. That when God sees His bride, it’s like those images where you take photos of people and put them all together to create a larger image. In this case, the photos were combined to create an image of a bride.

It made so much sense to me and somehow since then, whenever I think of the bride, I see this image in my head and it’s absolutely beautiful. Random response to your topic, maybe. Great way for me to connect the dots, definitely.

So seeing the church as a bride in that formatting, now creates a picture in my mind that personifies the church and frames it so that I can see her as an entity and not simply a mishmash of faiths and religious perspectives and all the good and not so great that goes into her. Now she is a living, breathing thing that embodies all of us and is affected by a myriad of thought, temptation, confusion, faith, compassion, fear, tradition, love and all the other aspects of fallen humanity  that is in need of redemption. 

Thanks for letting me rant on this. I hope it didn’t derail the conversation but maybe some people struggle with the idea of the church being a bride in the first place. This might give some perspective on what that could look like. :)

Hey Mary – glad you’re enjoying the 12 step class.  That’s really good stuff.  I’m sorry to hear about your falls!  

Just one note – when you get an email from The City (You’ll see The City logo in the corner) it’s a group email, and when you reply to it, your reply is posted and available for everyone to see.  If you want to email me personally you can start your own email, or message me on The City.  Sorry for any confusion!